Blue Ice Royal Blend: I thought the Amazon reviewers were wimps, but...

Robert loves goat cheese from a local farm!

We got our Blue Ice Royal Blend supplement (high vitamin butter oil/fermented cod liver oil) in the mail Saturday. I am so relieved and happy to say that both Suzi and Ivey can take it without too much of a problem! Luckily I read the Amazon reviews for advice before trying to take it. It's doable, but I have to admit I felt nauseous for a few seconds right after I swallowed it the first couple of times. So, if you are thinking of taking this supplement, here are my tips, adapted from things I read on Amazon:

1) If you can afford it, get the capsules. From what I've read you get less for your money that way but don't have to taste it. I didn't get it because I didn't want my kids to have to swallow a pill.

2) Or maybe try the cinnamon flavor. I didn't get that because Suzi is sensitive to spicy things and I thought it might burn her mouth.

3) Get yourself a glass of OJ.

4) Put a serving of chilled Royal Blend gel on the tip of a butter knife. Try to do the whole serving at once, because you aren't going to want to go back for seconds!

5) Wipe it off on the very back of your tongue, or maybe far back on the roof of your mouth.

6) Swallow quick like a pill and chug OJ until you feel better.

Today was my third day taking it and I think I am getting used to it! I'm hoping the kids will too.

The other parts of our changing relationship with food have been wonderful. On Saturday, we rode out to Milky Way Farm to get milk, butter and cream. We ordered some different types of meat from the food exchange this time, and I'm excited to learn more about cooking!

15 months today (and other miscellaneous thoughts)

The girls love Grandpa

I've been meaning to blog but the opportunity hasn't presented itself. Actually, I did blog Tuesday night, but I didn't publish it. It was a horrible day and once Suzi was in bed I wrote a long, irritated post that I knew I'd probably never publish. Here are some excerpts:

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I had to drag the girls to Suzi's dance class after nap. The car ride there and back was heaven, because the girls were strapped into their car seats the whole time and there weren't too many shenanigans they could get into. Well, I take that back. I'm pretty sure Ivey ate half a yellow crayon on the way home. We shall see in a day or two.

Upon arriving home from dance I so stupidly thought I could take both the car seats out and adjust them and put them back in before dinner. I unhooked them successfully, and even adjusted them and vacuumed all the nasty crumbs out. Things were going great. Then, while the girls played "airplane!" on the back seat, I tried to hook one back in. But the car seat company must have decided that it would be a real shame for a mom to be able to install a car seat all by herself, so they made the strap that hooks to the latch system too short to hook to both sides without superhuman strength. Now it is really dark outside and both car seats need to be put back in. At least it will have to get done now. Getting Ivey into her seat has felt like a wrestling match for weeks.

I was once a silly little college student who thought I had no time to do anything. And now I want to go back in time eight years, run up into my dorm where I didn't have a bathroom or a kitchen to clean and slap myself.

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It's funny how things can seem so horrible one minute and then three days later you've almost forgotten about it. It's one reason I blog, so I can remember. Oh, and it turns out I was putting the car seat in wrong. Of course. I'm pretty sure it's Britax's fault somehow.

Today Ivey is 15 months old. She's decided she doesn't like wearing diapers any more than I like changing them, and for the past few days has been going in her potty most of the time. I've tuned in to her signals better, and she's gotten much better at telling me when she has to go. One time yesterday she removed her diaper all by herself, sat down on her potty and peed. Using the potty seems to fascinate her. She sits down and pees or poops (or both) and then stands up, points at it, and says "pu-uh." Right now I am letting her run around diaper-free because she'll usually just go sit on the potty when she needs to use it. It's about lunchtime and she hasn't had a miss yet.

Ivey just before she woke up this morning

I've been meaning to add Ivey's new words on here, too. She says apple and points to the Mac logo on the laptop. Daddy is so proud. She has been saying thank you for a while, but it sounds like deh-duh. So polite. And my favorite is that she's recently taken notice of belly buttons--her own and those belonging to others. She points to her belly button and says "butt-butt!"

Tuesday we are going for our ultrasound! I called earlier to see if they would record it and to find out what to bring (DVD-RW) and found out they don't really want us to bring our kids. We are bringing Suzi anyway. There is no way I'm letting her miss this. She already loves Baby Robin so much and I want her to be there when we find out if it's a boy or a girl. Ivey probably wouldn't be interested anyway, and at least we'll have the DVD to show her later. We don't have a DVD for Ivey's ultrasound.

I have to mention the new supplement I am taking. I called my midwife Carey the other day as I was walking through the vitamin section of Earth Fare and she told me to pick up some ChlorOxygen. You add 20 or so drops of it to a glass of water. The extremely dark green color scared me at first but it wasn't bad at all. I've never had much energy, especially not while pregnant, but these past few days I've felt great. I've started to crave a dark green glass of ChlorOxygen instead of a hot cup of coffee. It's actually better than coffee. Seriously, you've got to try this stuff. It also reminds me to take my prenatal vitamin and helps me drink more water.

Because I have been feeling so great, I've had the energy to do things I wouldn't normally do, like bake pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie all in one morning. I'm currently trying to figure out the perfect recipe for cute 6-inch pumpkin bread loaves. You know what I mean--dense, moist, the perfect pumpkin-to-flour ratio, with absolutely no regard to what would be healthier. We are making nearly all of our Christmas gifts (I'm getting scared) and edible gifts are part of this! I need to get to work on some of the things I'm planning to make but have never actually made before. Waiting until the last minute won't work this year!

I can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, but most of all just to see that little Robin is doing okay. I should have some pictures of him or her to share next week!

Vitamin D Deficiency: Reality or Racket?

A little Vitamin D isn't that hard to come by!

Before we left the hospital with Suzi I was required to attend a "class" on how to care for my newborn. One of the points covered was that we must administer Poly-Vi-Sol drops every day. Our generous hospital had provided our first bottle, compliments of their philanthropic buddies at Enfamil. In the first day or two home from the hospital, I dutifully squirted this disgusting liquid into Suzi's mouth, only to have her throw it back up, along with the milk I'd just breastfed her. This was disconcerting, especially since she was gaining slowly anyway.

The next time we took Suzi to the doctor, I asked if it was really necessary to give her those vitamins. The doctor gave a knowing chuckle and said, with a sideways look, that yes, it was necessary because the vitamin D deficiency in some children's diets could leave them prone to rickets. She seemed skeptical herself of what she was saying, but at the time I knew no better than to do whatever the doctor said. My mom kept trying to give them to Suzi since it was hard for me, and Suzi spit them out and stained her clothes.

After a few weeks we decided to discontinue the supplements. My maternal instincts were telling me the stuff was noxious, so I took Suzi out for a little extra sunshine to get vitamin D instead. It was the first time I vetoed the Baby Police in favor of common sense.

Today as I was browsing my favorite blogs, I came across this article on Mama Knows Breast, which was sparked by an article in the New York Times. The AAP insists that it is necessary to supplement all babies except those who are fed formula, because the formula is fortified with everything baby needs. Sunlight, they say, is not sufficient because no one is sure how much sunlight is enough for any given child (darker skin pigments need more sunlight to generate vitamin D). Furthermore, we shouldn't be taking our infants out in the sun anyway, because it increases their risk for skin cancer.

Hogwash.

According to KellyMom, a site I love and trust, babies are usually only at risk for deficiency if 1) they don't have enough exposure to sunlight, 2) mother and baby have darker skin, or 3) the mother is deficient in vitamin D.

Suzi and I, as you may have noticed, are light-skinned. We both get a fair amount of sunlight and Suzi has had no problems so far with her bones. The claim that sun causes skin cancer so we should keep our babies out of it at all times is just ludicrous. Most people who end up with skin damage from UV rays have spent whole summers lying out on a beach blanket trying to get a tan, or repeatedly work outdoors without wearing sunscreen. Some experts suggest that sunlight is the safest way to get vitamin D because it allows the body to synthesize it, which takes away the risk of overdosing on supplements.

If adequate sunlight exposure is for some reason unfeasible, why not supplement the mother? She can take vitamins, or if that's not appealing vitamin D can be found in eggs, fortified milk, and many other foods.

I think we as a society have become too dependent on vitamins in general. When we should be planning our diet around our deficiencies, we've been popping pills to fix them. While vitamins are sometimes useful, no pill can replace a balanced diet. As for the vitamin D supplements, I will never give them again. To me, it's just something unnecessary which allows a formula company to make money even off women who are breastfeeding--which is exactly what they want.